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Jim Higginson – Class of March 2012

Jim completed an art foundation course and started a Degree but realised he wanted to follow a more vocational path. Jim knew he wanted to be a craftsman of some sort but it wasn’t until he built a skin-on-frame canoe in his spare time that he realised boat building was the craft. Since graduating the Academy in December 2012 Jim has worked for T. Nielsen & Company, on boats ranging from canal boats to tall ships. A few of the larger projects Jim has been involved with are:

• Kaskelot – 153’ Three Masted Barque (formerly of Square Sail, Cornwall), hull repair, deck repair and a new section of deck • HMS Victory – Re- fasten and re-caulk quarter deck (oakum and pitch), including some repair to the deck planking. Repairs to beak deck caulking (cotton and sikaflex) • Regular maintenance of pilot cutters Olga and Mascotte – anything from planking to painting • Block making and rigging for the film sets of ‘Pan’ and ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’ – splicing rope, making ash blocks, installation on set and operation of rig during filming • Charmian – Brixham sailing trawler, restoration of deck hatches, rebuild deck structure (beams/ carlins) • Building of two 12’ glued clinker pilot punts • Restoration of 17’ daysailer – total replacement of carvel planking and timbers, repair of floors, replacement of stem (lamination) • Other work including various wood working projects, GRP, basic rigging work (parcelling and serving wires, stitching leather, splicing rope, instillation of wires, blocks and rope)